title: Isolation and characterization of human breast cancer cells with SOX2 promoter activity.
abstract: Sex determining region Y-box 2 (SOX2) is well known as one of the "stemness" factors and is often expressed in cancers including breast cancer. In this study, we developed a reporter system using fluorescent protein driven by the promoter for SOX2 gene to detect and isolate living SOX2-positive cells. Using this system, we determined that SOX2 promoter activities were well correlated with SOX2 mRNA expression levels in 5 breast cancer cell lines, and that the cell population with positive SOX2 promoter activity (pSp-T(+)) isolated from one of the 5 cell lines, MCF-7 cells, showed a high SOX2 protein expression and high sphere-forming activity compared with very low promoter activity (pSp-T(low/-)). The pSp-T(+) population expressed higher mRNA levels of several stemness-related genes such as CD44, ABCB1, NANOG and TWIST1 than the pSp-T(low/-) population whereas the two populations expressed CD24 at similar levels. These results suggest that the cell population with SOX2 promoter activity contains cancer stem cell (CSC)-like cells which show different expression profiles from those of CSC-marker genes previously recognized in human breast cancers.
authors.affiliation: Division of Stem Cell Biology, Institute for Genetic Medicine, Hokkaido University, Kita 15, Nishi 7, Sapporo 060-0815, Japan.
authors.forename: Shanshan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Masako
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Furuhashi
authors.forename: Rie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Nakane
authors.forename: Seitaro
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nakazawa
authors.forename: Houman
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Goudarzi
authors.forename: Jun-ichi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hamada
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Iizasa
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000235:genetics* / Q000473:pathology; D017931:DNA Primers; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000235:genetics; D055748:SOXB1 Transcription Factors / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D012333:RNA, Messenger; C527782:SOX2 protein, human; D055748:SOXB1 Transcription Factors
keywords: Cancer stem cells; SOX2 promoter; Stemness; Transcription factor reporter